Turkey: Man who threw threats of "chopping heads off" released, commentary banned
A man who identified himself as "a Hezbollah supporter" in a street interview and targeted opposition figures saying "We'll chop off their heads," was released a day after he was detained.
Kurdish Islamist Huda Par (Free Cause Party) who has its roots in Hezbollah group recently joined the People's Alliance alongside the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), far right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Great Unity Party (BBP), Islamist New Welfare Party, and the party's candidates will run in the coming elections under AKP.
The man named Ismail Cevher Kasimoglu earlier said during an interview that he will vote for president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the coming presidential election, adding:
"Some will vote for the jackals. These are all seeds of Jews, of Armenians. Tell them, if they dare touch him, we'll chop their heads off. We are ready for jihad. We are men of jihad, you know? We are ready for jihad, and we sure will chop their heads off."
Targeting main opposition leader and opposition's presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, he remarked:
"That Kilicdaroglu and all those dogs should better watch their steps, and there is not much time left anyway... Not much time left for them to wander around freely here."
While the man was released after his statement was taken at the prosecutor's office, a ban was ordered by a Turkish court on a commentary containing lambasting comments about Kasimoglu.
The censored piece by journalist Fatih Altayli was apparently removed from the Website on Friday by the administrators of Haberturk.
Hezbollah group is held responsible for the murder of hundreds of Kurdish political activists, human rights defenders, journalists in the 1990s and for the assassination of a police chief and several police officers in 2001.